LOCATION: From US 83, eight miles west of
Mission, turn south on FM 1427 one mile. Cemetery is located on the side of a
hill.

SURVEYED: Virginia Stinson and Wilma C.
Kosar, March 1976, for McAllen Genealogical Society. Census began in southeast
corner and proceeded south to north (left to right) ending up at the front of
the cemetery. (Also known as San Antonio Cemetery.)

HISTORY: In 1767, the Spanish government
allocated to the City of Reynosa two square leagues as town commons (ejidos).
Over 10,000 acres of commons lay on the north bank of the Rio Grande. Reynosa
rented parcels (labors) of 177 acres to citizens for grazing livestock or for
farming, and the fees were used for charity.

In 1802, Reynosa moved to a higher location
11 miles downstream. On October 9, 1836, the government of Tamaulipas began
selling land in the Reynosa ejidos, but sales were invalid because by that
time the land belonged to Texas. In the 1930s, the State of Texas finally
confirmed titles to those in possession. .

As citizens established permanent homes in
the ejidos, Peņitas Ranch (Sp. for "little pebbles," so-named for
nearby gravel pits) developed on the Town Commons. The 1880 census listed 75
families at Peňitas Ranch. In 1893, adjutant Lt. W. H. Chatfield of Fort
Brown described well-kept dwellings, two stores, and a postoffice at Peņitas,
alongside the main road to Brownsville.

In 1992, Peņitas became an incorporated
community. The cemetery is maintained by the Peņitas Cemetery Association.
Oldest marked burial is that of Antonio Zamora, 1851-1894.